by Susan Stoker
Griffen just shook his head before dropping his forehead to my temple. "At least Forrest has a little sense. If it wouldn't fuck up my plans, I'd go out there and ruin her day. She should know better."
"Forrest?" I'd heard rumors that Sterling was flirting with the newly hired CFO, but flirting was a big step from sneaking him into her bedroom. He'd joined the family for dinner the night before. Looked like he'd never left.
Griffen shook his head down at me. "I'll tell you later," he breathed back before shooting them an impatient glance. "Come on, already. Just go before someone else catches you." Finally, the lovers broke their kiss. Forrest gave Sterling a gentle shove back in the direction of her room and soundlessly jogged down the back stairs.
Sterling drifted back down the hall, her wide grin practically lighting the whole house with its glow. I wanted to be happy for her, but something about this was off. It was too fast, and even if she didn't care about sneaking someone in the house, Forrest definitely should have known better—
My thoughts were cut off as Griffen pulled me from our dark corner, and we snuck down the hall, following in Forrest's footsteps.
We made it all the way to the stairs without incident. Around us, the house slept. Mostly. Savannah, our housekeeper, would be getting up soon, and the cook would arrive not long after, followed by day maids and groundskeepers. There had to be security wandering around somewhere, and then there was—
As if my thoughts had conjured them, I heard the familiar sound of my best friend whispering in the dark. But not to me. Crap. Daisy and Royal were already up. I couldn't have been happier that my best friend had fallen in love with Griffen's brother. Daisy was like a sister, and now she was around all the time. Convenient, except that she ran a bakery and woke every day well before dawn. She and Royal could keep a secret if they spotted us, but Griffen clearly wanted to make a clean getaway. At least this time we had something better than a dark corner to hide in.
Griffen backed me into the utility room at the base of the stairs, closing the door silently. "Should have left ten minutes earlier."
"Why are we leaving at all?" I whispered up at him.
Griffen turned me to face him, his features hidden in the pitch black of the utility room. "Because this house is too full of people. I want you to myself, just for a little while."
"But we can't—" I started to protest, though Griffen knew the many reasons we couldn't leave Heartstone Manor. He seemed bent on not letting me finish a sentence.
"We can and we are. Don't argue."
I shut my mouth, listening to Royal and Daisy murmuring to each other as they passed the door to the utility room on the way to the garage. So close, and still so far. I wondered if they'd run into Forrest out there. Awkward, considering Royal was Forrest's boss and Sterling's big brother.
I was listening so hard for the impending explosion, I wasn't ready for Griffen's hand winding around my waist, pulling me against him, then wandering up to cup my breast through my nightgown and robe.
"Since we have to wait," he murmured, dropping his head to press his lips to my neck, just below my ear. Heat speared through me, my head tipping to the side, back arching to fill his hand with my breast. I didn't mind being stuck in a dark closet with Griffen. His other hand came around to rest over the slight swell of my abdomen, cradling the baby bump that had only just begun to show. "I can't wait to have you all to myself."
Me either, especially if this was what Griffen had in mind. He nuzzled my neck again before clamping his teeth down in a light hold that had me thinking about biting him back, all over. But not in the utility room. If Royal and Daisy were already headed into town, it wouldn't be long until we were very much not alone. A door opened and closed. The garage. The faint rumble of an engine. At the sound, Griffen turned me in his arms.
"Just a few more minutes," he said, and then his mouth closed over mine. There were few things in the world I loved as much as kissing my husband. Winding my arms around his neck, I pulled him down, feasting on his mouth, meeting his questing tongue with my own. That fast and my head was spinning with lust. Not caring who was next to traipse by, I hitched my leg around Griffen's hip and pressed into him, needing more.
I swear, I'd spent my entire first trimester puking. Maybe not the entire trimester, but it felt like it. Then, practically on the day my second trimester started, a switch inside me flipped from nauseous to horny. Funny because normally just thinking the word 'horny' would make me blush. Not for the past few weeks.
I still got queasy here and there and was still napping way more often than I had before I'd gotten pregnant, but I was finally feeling human again. Except for the constant lust. That was super-human. What was my body trying to do, get me pregnant again?
It didn't help that my husband was both hot and exceptionally generous with the orgasms. All he had to do was raise an eyebrow, and I was simmering with need. Groping me in the dark utility room? He was lucky I hadn't tackled him to the floor already.
I gave a low wail of disappointment when he pulled back. Letting out a huff of air, he pressed his forehead to mine. "Just a few hours, and we can do that all we want."
"K," I breathed, my head still spinning.
Griffen cracked the utility room door and peeked out. "Clear. Let's go."
Taking my hand, he tugged me down the short hall to the garage. Our black SUV was in the first spot, as always. Griffen opened the passenger door, removing a folded blanket someone had put on my seat. As soon as I had my belt snapped, he tucked me in. Pressing a light kiss to my lips, he said, "Close your eyes and try to sleep."
Before he closed my door, he reclined my seat all the way back. Pre-pregnancy, my curiosity would have kept me awake. Not now. Wrapped in a cozy blanket and reclined in the wide seat, it didn't take long before my eyes drifted shut. Wherever we were going, we were going together. I'd find out the details later.
2
Griffen
Hope slept peacefully, a tiny half-smile on her lips as her chest rose and fell. She'd been working too much. We both had. Between taking over the family company, the attacks on me, and the attempts to sabotage the family inn, life had been crazy.
Who was I kidding? Since the moment my father had died four months ago, everything had been upside down.
I reached out to take Hope's hand, squeezing her fingers, loving the way her smile deepened as her fingers squeezed back. I loved this woman like I'd never imagined loving anyone. I still couldn't get my head around the fact of our child growing inside her. In all the insanity since my father's murder, Hope was the one thing I'd never seen coming.
Prentice Sawyer had been a master manipulator. I don't think he'd ever loved anyone except for himself. Definitely not any of his numerous wives or a single one of his children. He'd used his power to divide us, to pit us against one another, until we'd been all but strangers at his death. Then, in a final act of manipulation, he'd used his will to force us all to live in Heartstone Manor together. And, in a secret only a handful of people knew, he'd forced Hope and me to marry.
We could have walked away. If the town itself hadn't hung in the balance, we might have. Hope was the only thing my father had ever manipulated me into that I didn't resent. Whatever his motives, I knew love wasn't among them. Prentice Sawyer didn't believe in love. Fortunately, I did, and now I had Hope for my own. Even better, she loved me back. Four months ago a wife and child were the last things I'd wanted. Now they were everything.
I was excited about the baby, but I'd hated the beginning of Hope's pregnancy more than she had. A flash of her pale, sweaty face and I had to revise that statement. Maybe not more than she had, but it was close. Hope had been miserable. A good sport, always trying to push through, to avoid inconveniencing anyone, she'd spent the last two months saying she was fine when she was anything but.
Watching her go through that, unable to make her feel better, knowing it was my child inside her making her so sick, had been horrible. I'm a problem solver
by nature. Seeing the person I loved most in the world miserable and knowing I was the one who'd made her that way? Torture.
Then, only days after she'd entered her second trimester, the nausea had taken a back seat to her libido. I hadn't thought I could fall further in love with Hope, but watching my shy, inexperienced bride at the mercy of her hormones had done it. She'd been a virgin when we married, and while she'd grown very comfortable with making love, she wasn't usually the one to initiate. Not until the last few weeks.
I knew a good chunk of it was pregnancy hormones, but I loved that she couldn't keep her hands off me. I'd been holding back while she wasn't feeling well, following her lead, but now that she wanted sex pretty much non-stop, we had another problem.
A very full house. Between all of my father's wives, I have nine siblings, eight of whom were currently living in Heartstone Manor. The Manor was one of the few Gilded Age mansions still used as a family home, and it was immense, but somehow, still not big enough for privacy. Not when we also had Savannah and her son, Nicky, plus the rest of the staff, and the security team. We were never alone. Not really.
In some ways, it was nice. I'd been estranged from my siblings for over fifteen years before our father's death forced me home. In the last few months, I'd realized how much I'd missed them. How glad I was to have this second chance to be a family. I even liked the staff and the security team.
Before coming home, I'd worked with one of the best private security companies in the country. Thanks to a bullet to my shoulder I couldn't work in the field anymore, but I missed my team. I'd poached one of our best guys, Hawk, to head my security team at Heartstone, and it eased that sense of homesickness to have him close by, as if I hadn't completely left my old life behind when I'd come back to Sawyers Bend.
So, it wasn't that I was unhappy with my new life. If we could figure out who'd killed my father, who was still trying to kill us, you could even say I was exactly where I'd always wanted to be. Except that in this moment, where I wanted to be was alone with my very sexy wife. If one more person knocked on the door of our suite, I was going to kick them all out.
I couldn't do that. The terms of the will were clear. We all had to reside in Heartstone Manor full time for the next five years. We were allowed a total of fourteen days each quarter to be elsewhere. That was it. If I kicked them out, they'd lose their inheritances. I wasn't BFFs with my siblings, not after all those years away, but I wouldn't screw them over just to get some alone time with my wife.
I glanced over at Hope, at the full curve of her lower lip, the pink in her cheeks, the swell of her breasts, mostly hidden by her fluffy robe. I wouldn't kick out my siblings, and I wouldn't endanger Hope, but I was determined to get her alone, if just for a few days.
Another hour of driving and we were nearly there. I couldn't wait. Hope woke as I slowed and took the exit off the highway, turning onto a two-lane road that wound up into the mountains. Her eyes blinking open, she maneuvered her seat upright and tried to get comfortable.
"Bathroom?" I asked. With a slight flush to her cheeks, she nodded. "Can you hang in there for twenty minutes?"
Another nod. "Where are we? How long was I asleep?"
"Tennessee, and you slept for two hours."
"Tennessee? What are you up to?"
"I told you, we're breaking out. On the run."
"But what about the will?"
"Buttercup, it's the end of June."
At Hope's blank look, I grinned. My Hope was usually the queen of details, but lately, she swore the growing baby was sucking up all of her brain power. I waited until the confusion on her face cleared. "It's the end of the second quarter. And we never used any of our days away."
"Exactly. I have a friend, former client really, who owed me a favor. I thought it was time to collect."
"What about security?" Hope turned in her seat to glance at the empty road behind us.
I understood. Since the day our car had flipped thanks to a well-aimed bullet, Hope hadn't gone anywhere without at least one armed guard in addition to me. In my old life, I'd been one of the best, specializing in personal security, but I wasn't taking any chances with my wife.
I was at her side any time she left the house, our backup right beside us. We'd had plenty of room since I'd given up my mostly-flattened Maserati for one of the armored SUV's we used to use for high-end clients in need of protection. If it was good enough for movie stars and Saudi sheiks, it was almost good enough for my wife.
I'd gotten in the habit of letting security drive while I sat in the back seat with Hope, but this time it was just us. Kind of. I was restless, not stupid.
"They're back there. Hawk sent an extra team with us. And there's security where we're going. In fact, I designed it myself."
Hope's eyes lit with curiosity. "Really? Tell me."
"The client is in oil. Travels a lot between the States and the Middle East. He's based in Houston, but his family is from Tennessee, and he keeps this place as a getaway. A few years ago, his thirteen-year-old daughter was kidnapped. I led the team that brought her home."
"Was she okay?" Hope asked, brow furrowed. She knew enough about my former job to know that these things were rarely clean and easy. When violence was involved, no one got out unscathed.
"As okay as she could be. Roughed up a little, but otherwise unharmed. Terrified, but she was smart. She knew her father would send us, and when we got there, she was ready to go. She was a tough little cookie." I'd never forget that tear-streaked, bruised face, or the way she'd shot to her feet and held out her bound hands, ready to move as soon as she heard my American-accented English. "She's a senior in high-school now, and she likes her bodyguard about as much as you like yours."
Hope scowled. "I don't dislike the guards, I just wish we didn't need them." She took my hand, rubbing the backs of my fingers with her thumb. "I'm glad the girl is okay."
"Me too. So are her parents. Her dad wasn't thrilled I left Sinclair Security to come home, but when I talked to him last, he reminded me he owed me one. And I remembered this place." I turned off the narrow mountain road onto a smoothly paved drive that wound further up the mountain, coming to a stop in front of a tall iron gate. "One second." Jumping out, I entered the code into the keypad and the gate swung slowly open.
Following the drive to the house, the mountain rising around us, we felt like the last people on earth. Exactly what I wanted. The illusion of privacy. Considering our situation, illusion was the best I could do. Explaining, I said, "They come here for the same reason I asked to borrow the place. Privacy. I designed the security so it could be monitored from outside the main house."
I pointed at the gravel road that split off to the left as we passed it. "The security team is in a cottage up there. They can see everything outside the perimeter we set around the house and can get to the house in two minutes if they need to, but otherwise, the house and immediate grounds are completely private. Ditto for the household staff. They live in their own cottage next to security, and they'll feed us while we're here, but otherwise, we'll never see them."
A wide, relaxed smile spread across Hope's face. "Really? So we'll be safe, but it'll just be you and me? For how long?"
"We have that meeting on Tuesday, so I thought we'd stay until Monday evening, then drive back."
Hope let out a long sigh of satisfaction. "Sounds like heaven."
"That's the plan."
3
Hope
I barely noticed the outside of our borrowed sanctuary. By the time we pulled up in front of the house, I had to pee so badly I was afraid I was going to embarrass myself. After the last month of this, I didn't need to say a word to Griffen. The second he unlocked the door, he said, "Second door on the left," and I was bolting down the hall. Pregnancy. It seemed I was always bolting for the bathroom for one reason or another. I'd take this over the constant need to puke any day.
I found Griffen waiting for me by the front door, a familiar duffel bag bes
ide him. "Did you pack that yesterday?"
"While you were napping," he confirmed.
I wrapped my arms around him, burying my face in his chest. "You're a wonderfully sneaky man."
"I know. Want to see the house? I let the staff know we're here. They said they'll bring us breakfast as soon as we're ready."
Drawing in a deep breath scented of Griffen, I relaxed against him. I was hungry. Of course. Now that the constant nausea had passed I was always hungry. But first… "Let's put our things away and then think about breakfast."
"Works for me." Griffen snagged the duffel. "This way."
I followed him up the curving staircase to the second floor. The entire house was pine, great logs forming the frame, the walls either white plaster or more golden pine. The whole place glowed in the morning light, immense sheet glass windows facing out over the mountain. The owners probably called this place a cabin or cottage, but it was more like a palace designed exactly for this spot, every window bringing the outdoors inside.
Upstairs, I spotted the great room below, with more golden pine, massive pine log beams, and a two-story stone fireplace. It was a little warm for a fire, but I wanted to curl up in front of one anyway. That fireplace was too gorgeous to waste.
Turning into the master bedroom behind Griffen, my jaw dropped. Another stone fireplace, more of the heavy golden beams, and a bed big enough for an army. Suddenly, breakfast was the last thing on my mind.
It occurred to me that I was still wearing my robe. And before I could get dressed, I'd have to get undressed. Griffen had his back to me as he placed the duffel on an armchair and unzipped it, rooting around, probably for something for me to wear. That could wait. While he wasn't looking, I untied my robe and dropped it to the floor, whipping my nightgown over my head.